Medical student Haley Gates with James Parker, M.D. and the staff at Aliceville Family Practice.For medical students, shadowing a physician can be one of the most important experiences of their academic career, helping them decide what specialties they may want to pursue. This is where shadowing experiences, like the Pathway Program, come in. The UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine offers Pathway, a four-week summer shadowing program that exposes medical students to a rural ambulatory setting, to first- and second-year medical students through a grant from the Alabama Family Practice Rural Health Board. Accepted applicants are paired with a rural physician practicing in Alabama.
Through shadowing their preceptors, students get a more complete picture of what it looks like to be a primary care physician in a rural area, designated as an area with a population of 25,000 or less. This summer, there are 26 medical students participating in the Pathway program in 20 cities around the state.
“The Pathway Program provides the medical student a unique exposure to family medicine in a rural setting,” said Earl Salser Jr., M.D., associate professor of Family and Community Medicine. “This aspect of medicine is not emphasized in a busy academic training center, and so this experience is vital to reinforcing the student’s desire to be a provider in a rural primary care practice. This experience can be the difference between a medical student choosing a subspecialty and working in a major metropolis, or choosing to return home to serve the underserved in their hometown.”
Shadowing a preceptor looks different for each student, but Haley Gates and Randy Nelson are using the four weeks to assist in interviewing patients and helping to determine what needs to be done for them.
Gates, a second- year medical student, returned to her hometown in Aliceville to work with James Parker, M.D. at Aliceville Family Practice.
“I grew up in the rural town of Aliceville, so I think that’s why I’m drawn back to that setting for shadowing experience,” Gates said.
Another draw to the program is family medicine’s essential trait of patient care.
Medical student Randy Nelson“I like talking to and interviewing patients during an appointment,” said Nelson, who is shadowing at Childersburg Medical Surgical Clinic with Jarod Speer, M.D. “I like the patient care aspect of family medicine.”Both Gates and Nelson are members of the Family Medicine interest group, a student-run organization that promotes interest in family medicine. Participating in the interest group and programs like Pathway ensure students are nurturing their passion for rural family medicine, Salser said.
“The students always return from the summer with valuable insights in ambulatory family practice and living in a rural community,” Salser said. “It also reinforces clinical skills and gives the students a fresh energy to pursue their academic and career goals.”